I Gary Nguyen, have been working at NCO for almost 3 years now. As my
very 1st job at 18 years old, I was excited to be part of what was said
to be "A GREAT COMPANY"... Umm yeah right. Now im gonna try and make
this as short as possible, for I can sit and type for HOURS about all
the BS that goes around NCO.. Well actually I am. So here I go...
During my 1st week of training, I learned quite a few things. Most of
the things that we "learned" in class, were more like a review to me,
since I was already knowledgeable in the computer field. As far as the
selling, and customer service, that was entirely new and a different
experience. At the end of our 2nd week of training we finally received
our 1st paycheck. This was a good feeling for me. When I went to pick it
up that morning, I noticed that I was missing a lot of hours... I
thought to myself "I wonder if everyone elses is the same?"...Well it
actually was, but only a few of us. Can you believe that? My 1st
paycheck and it was already F@#$ ! I had to wait a few more days for HR
to give me the rest. Anyways, weeks passed and we all finally
graduated. After graduating and finally being on the floor with
ABAY, I was finally getting a feel for the call center. I was taking
phone calls and setting people up with services. It was somewhat
stressful at 1st, but was easy to get use to.. After ABAY, I was given
my normal shift schedule. That following Monday, I met my 1st supervisor
ever. Her name was Jocelyn Hill. She was a very sweet and caring
person, whom I still speak to til this very day. I also met the other
members within my team. One day I started noticing a lot of strange
things within the company. Most of what Ive seen, I have kept to myself
and never brought to anyones attention. I also noticed the type of
people that worked there. I seen employees harassing each other in
inappropriate and sexual ways. As well as kissing outside in the break
room. Now you would think that this type of thing isnt allowed. In my
opinion this doesn't show professionalism whatsoever. I will actually be
honest. I find it DISGUSTING to see 2 grown ass men kissing outside
next to me. Like seriously, keep that SH*T outside of work. PLEASE.
Time had passed and one day I decided to go on my lunch at 10:30pm. I go
outside and dont see my car anywhere in site. I walk, walk and walk,
til I finally knew for a fact that my car was not there. I looked at my
watch and noticed my lunch was already over. I ran inside to tell my
supervisor. She was somewhat worried. I logged out of my phone. I walked
over to Fatima Reyes who was actually with a new supervisor during this
time. Brenda Trevino is her name. I explained to them what had
happened, and I was surprised to hear what they told me. 1st off BOTH of
them found it funny that my car was stolen. I found this extremely rude
and unprofessional. 2nd of all, Brenda made a little statement to
me.."Gary if you go back outside, can you make sure that my Beetle is
still their?" WOW like are you F*KING serious Brenda? How are you going
to ask me such a stupid question like that? I had so much anger inside
of me, and til this day VERY LITTLE respect for that woman. She is one
that should NOT be in the position she is in today. And its not just
because of that. There is MANY more things that I can discuss about her
like when she was caught smoking WEED with another agent outside.
EVERYONE knew about this. Brenda was gone for about a week or so, until
Fatima called her back. Well anyways back on this topic, I turned around
and went outside. I told the security guard what had happened. Well
tells me "Oh you probably forgot where you parked your car!" Again I am
thinking to myself like what is wrong with these people here. Are you
kidding me? I told they guy that I already searched for my car and that
it doesn't take more than 30 minutes to find a car in a small parking
lot like that. He finally got off his lazy ass and decided to go look
around the parking lot using the small go cart or whatever its called.
Well he finally realized that I was right. I called the police to file a
report with them. There was issues with jurisdictions where NCO was
located. They didn't know if it was Harris County Constable or HPD that
needed to come to the scene. Well the authorities never arrived. I had
to get a ride home that night. I told my parents and they flipped out.
The next morning, I called 911 and asked for help. They had actually
located my car under the hardy toll road. That was actually 2 minutes
away from NCO. I asked for details, but they refused to give me any over
the phone. I was told that the car was near Tidwell and an impound. I
had my neighbor drive me there. When I got there I was shocked to see my
car was on the ground. Literally. Someone had stole my rims and my cds.
I had to pay close to $300 dollars just to get my car out of the
impound, and almost $200 dollars to get it towed to my fathers mechanic.
This was all of NCO's fault. Why? Well because I parked towards
the front of the parking lot where my car can be seen at all times. And
what happens? Someone decides to take it in front of security and the
cameras. Gimme a break. And I will tell you now that this is NOT the 1st
time someones car has been stolen from NCO. A few other occurrences and
MANY break ins happened at this company. There was definitely something
fishy going on within the security. Something wasn't right. All
because of the shitty security that NCO contracted. Well the next day I
went to work because I needed some answers. This was a Saturday
actually. I was off on the weekends. The 1st person I crossed paths was
Fatima Reyes...Not guess what the 1st words that came out of her
mouth?... "Gary are you here to make up the hours that you missed from
last night?" Again I was shocked at her response to me. I told her that I
was NOT going to do overtime, because I came to speak to someone in
upper management OR Corporate. Then she tells me that their is NO point
of me speaking to them. She started telling me that, I should NOT try
and attempt to sue the company. Well these were not my intentions
anyways, so she was just putting thoughts in my mind. She then told me
this... "Gary you know my car got broken into and their wasn't nothing I
could do" Wow that's a great comparison isn't it? Her car broken into,
and mine STOLEN? She then tells me "If you go to the mall, and your car
gets stolen, you think the mall is responsible? The same applies to NCO.
We are NOT responsible..!" That makes no sense and is a STUPID
comparison. 1st off the mall is a public area for people to go to.
Obviously you are going there at your own risk. Now 2nd, NCO IS PRIVATE
PROPERTY! I AM AN EMPLOYEE THERE. WHY IS THERE SECURITY IF THEY ARE NOT
DOING THERE JOBS>?! So don't compare a NCO to a dumb mall. PLEASE.
Now I walked away from her an finally got to speak to a guy from upper
management. He actually understood my situation and was more empathetic.
He told me that I could ask security for the tape so I can see what
time they took my car. Well when I requested to see the tapes, they
refused and told me it was against "company policy" and I needed
permission from someone else. I told the idiot that I did in fact get
permission from upper management. Long story short I was never able to
review to tape with my own eyes. Now one of the guys from security
actually watched the tape and informed me that my car was stolen 3 hours
after my shift had started. I recall my shift was from 3:30 to 11pm..
or something like that. This was ridiculous because I didnt know my car
was gone until 10pm that night when I had took my lunch. In the end, I
was NOT able to do anything about the situation. I was at a loss of
money and time, all because of the carelessness and lack of everything
from security. Not only that, but there were A LOT MORE break ins at
work. Doesn't this sound suspicious, if security NEVER knows what is
going on? Well guess what, one of my friends was close to one of the
guards WHO ADMITTED calling his friends to steal my car/break in tp
others. She reported this to HR and they eventually hired new security
guards. Now I will start to get to the actual point of my
rant(s)... NCO besides what was stated above has A LOT of fraud and
corruption. The company is ran by a bunch of idiots. Especially within
the upper management. You would be surprised to know, who is sleeping
with who, and how some got in the position they are in today. There is
also a lot of favoritism within the center.I know there is many
"supervisors" that DO NOT deserve to be in the position they are in. In
fact I know some of them HAVE NOT taking any type of "management
preparatory" classes. But it seems nowadays, one must kiss someone elses
ASS in order to move up. Even then I don't see why anyone would want to
be a supervisor with all the BS you go through. Now there is a lot of
mis-communication within superiors and their agents, as well as lack of
motivation and knowledge from a supervisor. I swear I have had atleast
6-7 superiors within the short period of time working at NCO. A good
handful of them were dumber than a rock, I couldnt ask a question
without them stuttering or having NOT ONE F*KING CLUE of what I was
talking about. Some of these supervisors, back then and currently now
ARE A JOKE. Im not gonna embarrass them and say any names at the moment.
There is so many misconceptions and misleading things that you
are brainwashed with when 1st applying. When you 1st get hired, they
promise you SOOOO many benefits that you will receive. This goes with
compensation/commission/payout, or whatever you wanna call it. There is
always some obstacle that WILL get in your way when trying to achieve
it. At 1st you think "Oh this is gonna be simple to get some extra
commission" Well actually NO because shit is always changed around with
the rules of what you can and cannot do. And if you do get "Payout" or
something, well chances are you gonna get F*KED anyways and NOT get your
money. TRUST ME. This has happened to me numerous amounts of times.
There was a few times where I was the number one agent on my team(Back
when we were ranked) and I never received my money. I met all my
qualifiers. My AHT, CLOSE RATE, and everything else were on point and
close to perfect. I never missed a day of work, and was always on time.
Were was my money then? This was something that kept continuing to
happen. At a certain point, I no longer cared about selling services...
What for? Just to bring more money to Best Buy and I not get my share? I
dont think so. I then started to troubleshoot all of my clients that
called in. Whether it was a hardware or virus related. I was helping
clients remove viruses over the phone. I was helping them save hundreds
of dollars, since Geek Squad obviously likes ripping people off with
their ridiculously overpriced services. I continued each and every day,
helping clients with their needs. It was to the point where they would
call back and request to speak to me again. I swear these people had
such joy in their voices, knowing that someone wasn't worried about
taking their money. Again this continued on... By this time I was
probably on another team. My schedule was changed so many times as well
as my days off. I don't recall what supervisor I had during this time,
but I do remember when I was "caught in the act" of troubleshooting. As a
matter of fact Fatima Reyes was the one that was monitoring me that
day. I was on a call for about 1 hour already. She told me to get off
the call, but I didn't. I was already half way through resolving the
clients issue. After I got off the call, I was sent to the 1 on 1 room
where me a Fatima had a conversation. She basically gave me a verbal
warning or something like that. Well Ill tell you know, that did not
stop me whatsoever, as I continued my successful troubleshooting with my
clients. Again time passed and once again I was being monitored, and
here we went again... Now at this point im not sure what had
happened, but apparently someone from upper management, liked the fact
that I and others were going "above and beyond" with my clients. Some
corporate guys from Minneapolis Minnesota, flew from over there to
Houston just to speak to us.They knew the great job I and others were
doing even before the troubleshooting. They wanted to start a new
program at the call center where it would consist of myself and another
small handful of knowledgeable agents. I would say it was only like 8-13
of us AT MOST. We had a corporate meeting one day where we all
discussed what we'd do with our clients. It was funny because all of us
stated the same thing. Corporate knew we were great agents. As a matter
of fact, each one of use were ranked one of the highest on our teams. So
we all had much in common. The people from corporate and upper
management had a proposition for us. Basically they liked the idea of
what we did, and wanted to bring a program called "STEALTH" to the
table. It was funny because I and some friends had a little thing called
"Stealth" as well. But ill discuss that a little later. Back on point,
we were all interested and wanted more details. From what we were told,
we were going to be the ONLY ones in the whole entire call center, that
would basically offer FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT. This sounded great to us,
but we knew there was a catch to all of this. Well they stated that we
were NOT allowed to troubleshoot or assist with virus issues, but could
help with any other need. This sounded like a pretty good deal to us. So
we agreed. They had us come in for more meetings with them within those
few days. We discussed many things and finally they made us official.
They promised us benefits as well as a possible pay raise...Which Ill
tell you now, NEVER happened. After they gave us our own little bay
and supervisor, we were pretty happy with ourselves. We felt as if we
made an actual difference. I actually always looked forward to going to
work each and everyday. It was a great feeling that I could go home
knowing I made a difference to my clients. I brought joy and
satisfaction to them. They saw Geek Squad differently in a good way.
Well time passed, and the decided to break us up and have us on other
teams. They wanted us spread throughout the center, so if someone had a
technical question, they could ask us. I didnt mind at all. Infact I
thought it was a great Idea. Well during this "Stealth Era" myself and a
few others that worked at NCO, had already started a side business
outside of work. Coincidentally we called ourselves "Undercover Stealth
Agents" or USA. Basically we had our own website which was created by
Lissette from work. She was our web designer. Anyways long story short,
word spread around the center and site leaked to management.. We were
sent to HR individually the day we started our shifts. Basically they
interrogated each one of us to see what information they could get. I
was asked all these silly questions like "What do you do when you
receive a local caller from Houston?" "Do your write down their
information and call them later and offer your cheaper services" "Have
you stolen or gotten anyones credit information?" WOW like SERIOUSLY?
Afterwards all 5 of us got suspended because of "Conflict or policy of
interest." I had no clue what this had meant, but HR explained this to
us then we signed some BS paper. I swear that document or policy was so
fake. When they made me read it, I could tell immediately, that it was
recently typed up for us. It had so many typos and grammar mistakes.
Well they also accused us of possibly stealing the name "Stealth" from
them... That's BULLSH*T because we had stealth and our website up and
running far back months BEFORE this other "Stealth" was brought to NCO.
It was just a huge coincidence, and we never mentioned anything.HR then
said they were gonna have IT look back into our computer history and
everything to see if we had did any type of fraud. They had that look of
certainty in their eyes as if they were gonna find something we did
wrong. Well guess what they didnt. After like 3 days of suspension,
they brought us back. Im sure they felt so stupid, they must of had
there heads way deep up their asses. Months and a year passed by,
and there I was still working in that sh*t hole. I stayed with them and
tried to move on not thinking about what had happened to my car and all
the BS I had been through. There had been opportunities to advance to
another department called MAGNOLIA HOME THEATER. My 1st attempts to
getting over there were not to good. I had an interview with Jesus Faz.
After interviewing with him, I was told that someone or himself would
get back to me.. Months passed and nothing. I heard from no one. Well
turns out they were no longer hiring and the spots were filled. I waited
months again to get another chance. Finally that time came. This time I
found it strange how I had to get re-interviewed not by one but 4
people. My 1st interview was with Faz and Claudia. After passing that
one, I waited a few days. Now I had an interview with Jarod, who was the
manager of Magnolia Home Theater. After passing that one I waited a few
more days once again.. This time I had my last and final interview with
Greg*Crack head*. He was someone within the upper management. Well it
seemed to have went well. A few weeks had passed and I was finally
accepted to Magnolia Home Theater. I was pretty excited because I was
pretty knowledgeable in the home theater area. I was also told that my
pay would increase to 12 per hour + my extra 1 dollar since I was
bilingual. I was really happy. Days,weeks and months had passed
with home theater. I had made new friends and gained much more
knowledge. I was still getting paid less than everyone else. I had NOT
received my pay raise. I kept getting the run around with supervisors
and upper management once again. I was continuously told that emails
were sent and phone calls were made. To who is what I wanted to know?
Because if I saw them in person, I would probably slap them in the face.
It literally took 5-6months for me to FINALLY get my pay raise and
RETRO. Meaning they owed me for every hour I worked from that period of
time. Now the thing was they originally tried to give it to us as
COMPENSATION and not RETRO. Now the thing with this is that you get
taxed much higher that way. We reported this to management because this
was not right. Now we had to wait about 2 more weeks while "who knows
who" was contacted. Finally after waiting I got my retro. Well
there I was still working at NCO. More and more time had passed and I
was getting closer to my official 3 year mark. One day Claudia went up
to me and said "I heard you are knowledgeable with cars?, could you come
in tomorrow morning so we can have a corporate meeting?" I asked what
this was about, and she just told me that it was "mandatory" that I come
in. Well I actually did come in the next day since it was my off day. I
also canceled my morning plans I had arranged. When I arrived to the
center, I go into the corporate room, and I see a few of my co workers
in there. So there we were,sitting and asking each other whats going on.
Finally Claudia walks in with a small group of people. 2 of them in
which looked VERY familiar. Actually I remembered them perfectly. They
were the same guys from Minneapolis Minnesota, that had originally came
the 1st time when I and the others helped bring "Stealth" or what is now
called EMC. Well turns out that they were NO LONGER contracted with
Best Buy and they had some partnership with AAP(Advance Auto Parts).
Anyways there they were asking us about "what we could bring to the
table" They basically wanted to bring AAP to the call center, and start a
new program. One of the guys that was in the room was recording the
whole meeting we had. They had brought us food and stuff also. We
thought it was pretty cool and wanted to know what was in it for us.
They stated that we were possibly gonna get the same or better pay if we
moved to that department. Well Ill tell you now, that NEVER happened.
Not only that, once that department was made official at NCO, we were
NEVER asked if we wanted to transfer over with them. So there we were
stuck in Magnolia, thinking we were gonna try something new. A few weeks
had passed and they already had hired some agents for AAP. That day,
they were gonna graduate. During that time, those corporate guys were
there and also NCO management. They had the graduation in the conference
room right across home theater. What really upset us, was the fact that
we DID NOT, get any type of recognition or a simple thank you from
anyone. It would have been real nice if they could have atleast gave
recognition or a simple handshake for what we had brought to the
center.. but no.. It was upsetting to know that we were just being
used... One day they decided to split up home theater into
different teams. They obviously dont like the fact that we were all
together. I can also bet that they didnt like the fact that we got paid
12-13bucks per hour as well. I went from Faz's team to Vanessas team. I
was told that my scheduled time was changed from 230-11pm to 2-10:30pm,
with the same off days. I was coming in on my "new" scheduled time. Well
one day I go to check my aspect, and it shows that I have been working
the wrong shift the whole time. This was BS. I told Vanessa and she told
me that I needed to work my normal shift again. I was like WOW. Also
another thing was when I was given a new login supposedly. Well actually
it wasn't new because it was my old Geek Squad Avaya login(28653)...
When I had moved to home theater I was told NOT to use that one anymore
and my new Best Buy Avaya login was (26421). There was some issues one
day. Nestors fag*ot a$s, told me to use some other weird login. I did
so, only to later tell me there was a mix up with mine and another agent
on my team. I was like ok.... So later on that night, that stupid bitch
from workforce who I hate, comes and tells me that I am NOT shown
present in her system. Meaning she thought I was absent all day, even
though I was at work taking calls. Well turns out that there was lack of
communication within the people of workforce AND superiors. I was given
all these stupid logins that didn't work. I was even given some login
id that was only for T-Mobile calls. Come on now, T-Mobile calls?
Anyways when my check finally came in it was really REALLY short. I got
paid maybe half of what my check normally was. I went to work the next
day and looked at my hours. It showed that I had only did about 28hours
within the 2 week pay period. That was such BS. I told Brenda, and she
is gonna tell me "Its probably because of all your log outs Gary." I
just stared at her. There was NO WAY IN HELL that I log out that much
for my check to be that short. I did of course have a bad habit of
logging out an average of 1-2 hrs a day at most. So obviously I wasn't
doing my full 80hrs. My checks were around 15-20 hours short each time.
So maybe around 60-65hrs average each pay period. So if my mathematics
are correct 28hrs in 2 weeks is completely off. I told Vanessa and she
told me that she was gonna "email someone". Again there I was listening
to this email crap. I was also told that I was gonna get the missing
hours on my next check. Well guess what happened? That day came and I
DID NOT have my other hours and I was also at 48hours this time! Not
only were my hours short AGAIN, I didn't get the amount from the last
pay period. Remember those "emails" that were sent? Well I talked to
Brenda and she didnt even give a damn of the situation. Basically blew
me off and said there was nothing she could do about it. I then went to
HR and payroll and explained the situation. The lady there was shocked
because she was never informed of what had happened in the 1st place. So
I had to explain the whole story to her. Well afterwards she said that
she was gonna get back to me. Well I waited about 1 week or so until I
finally got a response. My hours were basically messed up because of all
the different logins I was using. Well she said that I need to speak to
my supervisor(Vanessa) in order link all my hours on each login I used.
This process took about another 2-3days. After they were all linked my
hours were still too short. Turns out that the system should be absent
for 5 days straight. I don't see how this was possible. Well if you add
the 20hrs found + the 28hrs I was paid that equals 48. Isn't it ironic
how my last check was also 48hrs. I was so fed up and knew there was
nothing else I could do. So I just accepted the check they gave me.
After that I went back to my normal login and my pay checks were about
normal as always. Now just recently, (I dont know who),had a bright
idea*sarcasm*,to "cross-train" all the Geek Squad and Best Buy agents
at NCO. Umm basically meaning, EVERYONE would take each others calls and
vice versa. Well I think this was one of the STUPIDEST ideas one can
come up with. And I will tell you why. 1st of all 95% of the people
working there are so dumb, they can only rely on their "training"
abilities. I can assure that without training they wouldn't have a clue,
what the client is talking about or what to even say. I cannot begin to
say how much escalations this brought. I was constantly receiving all
these complaints from clients telling me that "someone" supposedly
assisted with their issue, and actually made the situation worse. So now
I'm sitting there wondering WTF is going on here? 2nd of all there is
NO notes from the agent and I don't have a clue of what department they
come from since EVERYONE takes Home Theater calls also. So there I am
having to put up with this irate client who is now expecting ME to help
with whatever issue it is. This was getting ridiculous. I then started
to receive EMC calls every single day. At first I did not mind taking
them for I kinda liked going back to my technical ways. BUT it got to
the point where I was no longer taking any home theater calls... And
what pissed me off even more was that I was the only one in Magnolia as
well as my friend taking these calls. This was such BULLSH*T because
that dumb b*ch from workforce kept purposely routing calls to our
phones, especially when our supervisor was gone. I spoke to Brenda
again, and she stated that I HAD to take the calls. I asked why and she
couldn't give me a legit reason. All she said was that EVERYONE was
taking EVERY TYPE of calls. Ok well I told her that I don't mind taking
overflow calls but chances are, I WILL TROUBLESHOOT the clients I speak
to. She told me not to do that. And I told her that I will if workforce
keeps routing the calls to me and setting me on Priority 1. Well guess
what happened... I started getting back to back calls from EMC. This was
ridiculous because all the other EMC agents were NOT receiving any
calls back to back as I was. Well I was getting pretty pissed off. I
noticed that me and another few agents were the only ones taking these
calls. We looked up at the screen and saw that there was not any calls
waiting in que. This made us even more upset. This was NOT even
overflow. Well I went and told that bitch from workforce and she tells
me that there is NOTHING she can do, and that I need to speak to my
supervisor. I told her for what!? Your the one routing calls and
changing my skill set. She still didnt care. So neither did I. I was
either troubleshooting my calls, OR warm transferring back to EMC. I
would continuously do this for days, and days. Finally one day
Nestor, WHO IS NOT MY SUPERVISOR decides to monitor my calls. Well he
realized what I was doing. So he went and snitched to Brenda about what I
did. He made me write a statement of what I was doing. I gladly wrote
the statement FRONT AND BACK. Then he has the nerve to ask what is
taking so long to write it. Come on now, you want a statement? than bet
your ass ima right my statement with DETAILS. Well this occurred on a
Tuesday. I was off weds and Thursday, and came back Friday. My shift
started and everything seemed normal. Vanessa to me to AUX 3(Meeting).
At this point I already had a gut feeling of what was about to happen.
Nestor then saw me and told me to go to the one on one room. As I was
sitting there, he came in and told me to wait for Brenda. So after
minutes and minutes of waiting , Brenda, Vanessa, and Nestor all came
in. She had like a bunch of paper work in hand. Basically telling me how
I had a trace and they were watching what I was doing. I explained to
her since she wanted to hear it from my own mouth. Then she was telling
me how I was avoiding calls, and abusing Aux 4. She started giving me
some BS speech about, "How this job is probably not meant for me." I
just listened and gave her a smirk. I already knew where she was going
with this. Next thing you know she slips a paper in front of me stating
that I was terminated. I looked at it and somewhat smiled. I signed it
and she asked for my badge and headset. I gladly gave it to her. Then
she had her little b*ch Nestor escort me out the building. As I was
walking out, several of my colleagues and friends were standing in
disbelief. They knew right away what had happened. I waved good bye to a
few that saw me. Once I walked out the building, I felt a sense of
relief and weight off my shoulders. I felt all that stress come to an
end. My time at NCO was complete. And like quoted from a fellow friend
of mine "Its pretty sad that there is a certain person at NCO whose main
goal in life is to catch other people slippin and mess everything up
for them." Well said my friend well said. I hope you read this Nestor.
All this shit you do isnt gonna get you anywhere in life. You are NOT
gonna move up or get promoted for this. So as I conclude my story, I
would like to end this "Thank you NCO, for all this sh*t you put me
through and F*K YOU! ! !"